The Influences In Edgar Allan Poe's Life

Edgar Allan Poe

Dark… Melancholy…Gothic… Words often used to described Poe’s work. From being as poor as dirt to his father abandoning his mother and him then soon after his mother died leaving him as an orphan at the age of three, this influenced his writing. Born in Boston Massachusetts, January 19th, 1809. Edgar Allan Poe’s parents were both actors that worked at Mr.Placides Theater Company. When Poe was two his father abandoned him and his mother Elizabeth. Not soon after his mother died of tuberculosis causing him and his brother to be orphans. Separated from his siblings a couple named John and Frances adopts him. Him and his adoptive family moves to New England in 1815 but sooner returns to America in 1820. When Edgar

Ten years after he moved back to Richmond, Virginia and found out his childhood sweetheart was married. He soon married his first cousin, Virginia Eliza Clemm when she was thirteen. Some many thought it was a strange and skeptical relationship but he reached the peak of his writing career while she was still alive. He had a downfall when she died and went into a depression state in 1847. After eleven years of being married, they never had any children together. Edgar Allan Poe had many jobs. He struggled to keep one. At times they would last 2 months or two years and he’d move on and find a different one. He did a lot with magazines at one point he applied to be a school teacher but it was denied. In 1836 Edgar Allan Poe became an editor at Thomas W. White Southern Library but a year later in 1837 he was no longer editing it. Finding jobs wasn’t hard for him. During the time he wasn’t employed he wrote poems and entered in contests. July 1831 he submitted several of his stories in a contest sponsored by the Philadelphia Saturday Courier. (knowingpoe.thinkport.org/person/) Although he didn’t win first the contest they published five of this stories without identifying the author later on. Two years later in October of 1833, he won 50 dollars from a contest by Saturday Visitor for entering his poem “Ms. Found a bottle” In 1840 Edgar Allan Poe’s tale of the Grotesque and Arabesque which

He was a failed a baptist minister who turned into an editor. Edgar Allen Poe viewed Griswold as a literally potential writer. Griswold thought he was just a dirty southerner. But he already had the reputation of a fearless and unbiased critic. Even though the both of them didn’t like each other very much they still had a professional relationship. Poe described Griswold as “...not one a polished prose-writer, but a poet of no ordinary powers” (ea poe.org) They were working there together but Poe giving up his editor chair while Griswold stayed. Poe wrote a letter to Daniel Bryan on September 12th of 1842 confessing how he was growing to dislike Griswold. “He [Graham] is not especially pleased with Griswold- nor is anyone else, with the exception of the Rev. gentleman himself, who has gotten himself into quite a hornet's nest by his “Poets & Poetry”... He is a pretty fellow to set himself up as an honest judge or even a capable one. (eapoe.org) Edgar Allan Poe thought Griswold was slacking as an editor there and Griswold seemed to gloat at the lack of editorial ethics. (eapoe.org) As a writer, you will have a lot of people criticize you, your work and everything you did. Just being a human in general you will receive a lot of positive and negative feedback from others. Least to say you would have to move past all the rude comments and slurs people would put on your name. Overcome it. That’s what Edgar Allan Poe did. People would